Straddle-type vehicles used for racing and riding, such as motorcross, supercross and off-road motorcycles or bicycles, ATVs or the like often include traditional one-dimensional foot pegs for engaging an operator's or rider's feet and boots. Typically, these traditional foot pegs are fixed transversely to the frame of the vehicle and designed to allow the operator to rest the ball of his foot (or front portion of the foot, but not the heel) on the peg and help the operator maintain his or her balance. However, these traditional foot pegs fail to prevent extreme flexion to reduce the possibility of ankle injury to the operator during racing and off-road riding conditions.
In motorcycle racing and off-road riding, the operator is often forced to maneuver the vehicle at high speeds over jumps, berms and around turns over a track that may be composed of dirt, mud, sand and other components. The high speed and jumps lead to very hard and awkward landings due to the magnitude of the force and impact, which can cause injuries to the operator's feet and ankles, such as bruises, sprains and fractures. Moreover, in some instances, the operator may not have his or her feet placed properly on the foot peg causing extreme flexion of the ankle. Therefore, a need exists for a foot peg that prevents extreme flexion to reduce the possibility of ankle injury to the operator. A need also exists for a foot peg that provides additional support to allow superior performance and execution of riding dynamics.
As discussed above, motorcycle racing involves high rates of speed over rough terrain and numerous jumps, so a primary goal of the operator is to maintain his or her balance. Indeed, the operator often finds himself or herself, inadvertently, off balance and falling backward due to the high rates of speed and uneven terrain. As a result, the operator falls backward and his or her hand often twists the throttle applying power to the vehicle and exacerbating the off-balance situation. This sequence of events usually results in the operator becoming separated from the vehicle, which is dangerous for obvious reasons. In addition, the operator's boot may slide off of the foot peg, resulting in even more application to the throttle and, ultimately, resulting in separation of the operator from the motorcycle. Accordingly, a need also exists for an improved foot peg that allows the operator to better regain his or her balance.
Furthermore, racing or riding conditions are often arduous and sometimes include a repeated section of randomly spaced elevated bumps known as “whoops.” Under these conditions, operators typically use the technique of extending their arms and getting their buttocks over the back of the vehicles to allow the vehicles to articulate beneath them as they ride and bounce over the whoops at high rates of speed. In doing this, the operator's ankles tend to rotate downward and to the rear where no support is provided by the foot peg. Moreover, an operator's boots often come off of the foot pegs and regain contact with the pegs over and over again during this sequence, making it very difficult to get their boots back into the proper position. Therefore, a need also exists for an improved foot peg that provides additional ankle support at flexion under arduous racing conditions.
Finally, motorcycle racing involves a great deal of contact between an operator's foot and the foot peg. Accordingly, durability of the foot peg is desirable under such conditions to avoid breakage of foot pegs in order to avoid continual foot peg replacement or more-than-routine maintenance, which is expensive and time-consuming. Naturally, any improvements along such lines should further contemplate good engineering practices, such as relative inexpensiveness, stability, flexibility and ease of manufacturing.